Vitamins: To supplement or not to supplement?

By Kimberly Gillan| 2 years ago

What you need to know before you pop a vitamin pill.

That is the question … on the lips of health conscious individuals who are understandably taken by the idea of popping a pill to improve their health but have heard that supplements just don't cut it compared to a healthy diet.

"The study did find that in some cases there was an increased risk of cardiovascular events but as dietitians we see lots of elderly people who are needing to take calcium supplements for osteoporosis — so it's about weighing up the risk factors for different people," she told Coach.

"If they have a high risk of heart disease and have some other risk factors then that might be a real priority, whereas if they are at risk of fractures they might need calcium. It's not a black-and-white situation."

For the most part, Ferraretto would prefer to see people getting their nutrition from their diet – because foods are usually a better whole source of nutrition.

"It's almost like nature has packaged these important nutrients in foods in a way that helps our body to absorb them – we know that iron from meat and calcium in milk is really well absorbed," she says.

Ferraretto says that some people who struggle to meet the dietary guidelines can benefit from taking a multi-vitamin to ensure they are getting enough nutrition, but she doesn't recommend taking specific supplements without the guidance of a health expert.

"Sometimes when we are taking all these pills with quite high levels of nutrients compared to what we get in food, we are not really sure exactly how our body is going to feel with that," she says.

"I do prefer people to take a multi because it gives you a little bit of everything. Rather than picking out one single nutrient and having high levels of that because that is more likely to unbalance the absorption of other things."

Ferraretto says she had a client whose iron levels went down after she started taking a calcium supplement in an attempt to prevent osteoporosis.

"With supplements there can be competition for absorption," she says.

"When she went off her calcium supplement and increased her dairy, ate lots of red meat and it rectified itself."

Ferraretto says that research is relatively limited into supplements and that there are only vague restrictions on what companies can claim their supplements do, so it's often confusing for individuals who just want to look after their health.

"Sometimes there is a need for people to take a supplement and that has to be done in conjunction with their GP or dietitian or specialist, who found there was a nutritional risk or nutritional deficiency where diet in the short term isn't going to be quite enough."

There are some supplements that have quality evidence for their use, including folate in pregnancy to reduce the risk of neural tube defects, omega 3 for people with heart problems, and iron for women with deficiencies as a result of menstruation.

"There is also evidence around vitamin C reducing the severity and duration of coughs and colds and flu-like illnesses, but not if you take it all the time," Ferraretto says.

"It's something you take if you have been exposed to someone who's unwell or feel like you are getting a bit sick and you are trying to give your immune system a boost.

“Vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin so the benefit is that if you don't use it you just pee it out, whereas some vitamins are fat soluble so you store the excess and that can lead to toxicity."

"There is a risk of having really expensive urine when you take lots of vitamins," Ferraretto says.

"Sometimes you just don't need all of those things and your body will just get rid of that."

Ultimately, if you think you might need a little extra nutritional help, Ferraretto says it's imperative you speak to your GP or dietitian to make sure you don't throw out another nutrient level through misguided supplementation.

"I wouldn't want people just walking into a pharmacy or health food store and grabbing whatever because it says it helps with XYZ," she says.